


No Longer Alone

by taibhrigh



Category: Space: Above and Beyond
Genre: Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-10
Updated: 2010-09-10
Packaged: 2017-10-11 15:40:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,752
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/113985
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taibhrigh/pseuds/taibhrigh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hawkes and West and a rescue mission</p>
            </blockquote>





	No Longer Alone

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt:** brothers [at LJ's smallfandomfest] / backward (#366) [at LJ's writers_choice]  
> **Notes:** Thanks to siluria and tarlanx for the beta.

Cooper understood the concept of family; at least the basic definition of it. He knew that genetically speaking he'd had a sister--Katie. That he had to choose between her and all of the five-eight. Though, at the time he hadn't fully understood what it meant, so he had chosen the five-eight.

He knew that there was even a possibility that he had other brothers and sisters that had been decanted and were alive in the world somewhere. Would they want to meet him? Would he want to meet them? Would they really be his family? Whenever he thought of Katie those questions zoomed around in his head. Whenever a member of the five-eight was in trouble those thoughts came up as well.

Sometime after the incident where Nathan went AWOL and the shit on Tartarus went down he'd started looking at the five-eight as his family; and not just as brothers-in-arms, but as people he could trust to answer his questions. People who could help him understand how to be human. And though they joked about his lack of knowledge on certain things, they never made him feel stupid or less human because he wasn't born of a mother and father.

His thoughts flowed back into the matter at hand: he needed to rescue a couple of them.

Barely moving his sniper rifle between shots, he fired four times in rapid succession. He imagined he could see the bullets streaking through the air towards their intended targets. And sometimes he honestly thought he could. It was something he'd talk to McQueen about…eventually. He looked through his scope. Three down, he thought, and who knows how many more to go.

"Moving positions," he said quietly into his radio.

"Copy, Jack. Nice shooting," Nathan West said, and Cooper could hear the slight hitch in Nathan's voice as his friend tried to spot him. But Hawkes was very good at this job. It was, after all, what he had been created for--wet work, assassin, special ops. His friends knew this, especially Nathan whom he'd told the entire story too. But instead of pushing him away like he thought they would, they had brought him even closer after the incident with Major Colquitt. An incident that only Nathan and McQueen knew the entire truth about. Now he took on no secret missions unless Nathan went with him. Like now.

Cooper stayed hidden even as he brought down another two targets. Though Nathan must have seen at least one of the targets fall as Cooper's radio squawked quietly and Nathan's voice said: "From position two, you should see your next three cresting the ridge."

"Copy, King."

~*~*~

The next half hour moved quickly for both young men as they continued to slowly move in a stop-wait-move strategy created to move them around the alien terrain in a pattern only they knew; even if it meant backtracking around to lay down false paths. They were creating an exit strategy just as much as they were trying to reach their target. Nathan had quickly made the decision to toss the plan ONI had given them as soon as they landed and discovered the intel provided by the "intelligence people" was obviously older than the war and that no one had rescanned the planet since shortly after the mining operation had closed some ten years before. It was just them and whatever they could come up with using the intel from the tracking satellite they'd dropped into orbit before landing was sending down to their handheld.

They would owe McQueen big time, as the small tracking device the five-eight now wore attached to their dog tags had been his idea. No one but the five regular members of the five-eight, McQueen, and the Commodore knew about them. It was in the testing phase. If it worked, the Commodore had plans to tag all of the teams on his ship so he could bring them home.

Nathan checked his watch; he had two minutes to make it to their rendezvous point. He stayed low and darted between the high grass and shrubs. He would have completely missed Cooper where he lay hidden in the tall brush, had his friend not yanked him to the ground.

"Shit, Cooper," Nathan whispered, moving into a better position. "I'm getting you a bell or something." Nathan glared at his squad mate for nearly giving him a heart attack. "Probably wouldn't work with you unless you wanted it to," he muttered.

Nathan shook his head before looking through the scope of his rifle. He couldn't see anything, put his scope wasn't nearly as powerful as the one on Cooper's rifle. Nathan looked closely at the younger man, knowing that Cooper wouldn't admit to being injured in any fashion unless there was blood visible. And even then it was questionable as to whether he would admit it. The time in detox for the green meanies was all because some doctor couldn't spare a second to look at a dog tag before treating an injuried soldier and now Cooper was wary of any type of medical help. Not that Nathan blamed him, some doctor had wanted to cut into his brain because everyone else had been convinced that the five-eight was dead but he knew better.

He looked Cooper over one more time and realized that while he'd had two brothers by blood he'd started treating Cooper like a third and no matter what mischief or near death experience they came into and through, and no matter who threw the first punch in the Tun Tavern, he would never regret it.

~*~*~

Cooper shrugged, before turning his head to look back through the scope of his rifle. He actually got the bell reference Nathan was making this time without his friend having to explain. He smiled as he fired again. "What color ribbon?" he asked, grinning as the target fell to the ground. "Time to move," he said. "And I'm not injured. Honest."

"Camo green," Nathan responded, picking up his rifle and following Cooper through the terrain to the next position they'd chosen. When they stopped ten minutes later, Nathan opened the handheld computer and quickly double-checked their position with the intel from the tracking satellite. "Queen and Ace, should be less than a click away."

Cooper was already on the ground, his eye to the scope of his rifle. "I can just make them out," he said. "They've got five unfriendlies with them."

"Can you take them from here?"

"Yes," but Cooper was shaking his head no at the same time. "But not before they could get Shane and 'Phouse," he finally admitted.

"I could pull one of the shots," Nathan suggested, adjusting the scope on his rifle, "maybe two if we can get closer."

Cooper snorted and Nathan rolled his eyes before turning it into a mild glare. "Well," Nathan said, using an old argument to try and shift Cooper's thoughts. "I'm sorry I'm the better pilot and you're the better shot." They were too close to the end of their mission to stop now. "Options?"

"Hey," Cooper started, then paused. He was normally not the one to plan things, especially things like this. "We could just walk right up to them? Well, you really," he said, gaining courage as the plan formed in his head. "Distraction-like, you know? Hope two of them come for you, though three would be better. On cue, you drop and take the far one, I take the three over you?" Nathan didn't respond, and Cooper winced, thinking maybe the plan was too uncertain, before quietly muttering, "Man, it was only a suggestion."

Nathan nodded, busy playing the plan out in his head. Once, twice, and then a third time just to be sure, before he spoke. "It might just work too."

"Really?" Cooper looked up shocked.

"Yeah," Nathan agreed, crawling over Cooper and out toward the ledge for another look. "But, you better not miss."

"Deal."

~*~*~

Nathan took a deep breath and stumbled out of the undergrowth. He had blood and mud all over his uniform. It truly looked like he'd been stranded on the planet for months. He stumbled more and tripped over a root going to his knees before climbing to his feet again and stumbling off in a slightly different direction but still towards his captured squad mates.

Like Cooper had wanted, two of the Chigs started toward Nathan. Unfortunately, that still left three too close to Shane and 'Phouse. For Cooper to make the shots at least one more would need to move.

He got his wish when Nathan started to weave off to the right. Cooper pulled the trigger as soon as the third enemy began to walk towards Nathan. He saw the Chig that had been closest to their captured comrades fall to the ground. He saw both Shane and 'Phouse drop to the ground just before he swung the rifle back towards Nathan.

Nathan for his part dropped to the ground as soon as the first Chig dropped from an unheard shot from Cooper's rifle. He took his shot and dropped his own Chig. He saw the third Chig basically explode just above him. He brought his handgun up and dropped the fourth one at close range. That just left the one in the middle.

Cooper heard the retort of Nathan's handgun and knew he'd taken out the other Chig that had been approaching him. He swung his rifle to the center to see the final enemy turning to fire towards Nathan. He didn't even blink before pulling the trigger. He also heard Nathan's gun again. He knew they would be arguing over who actually got the kill for the next week.

He climbed to his feet and gave the all clear. When Nathan popped up onto his feet Cooper let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. He jogged towards Nathan and then they both made it to where Shane and 'Phouse were beginning to sit up.

"It worked," he said, awed slightly.

"You did good, Cooper," Nathan said. "Now let's go get them before they start bitching about how long it took us to come get them."

Cooper grinned. "They're still going to bitch.

Nathan snorted. It was true. They were going to bitch. "Come on," he said. "Sooner we retrieve them, the sooner we can get back and I have cookies we can split while we fly the APC back to the 'Toga."

"Chocolate chip?"

"Yep."

"Cool."


End file.
